EXCLUSIVE: YellowDog sees 20% take-up of employer-paid cycling scheme

EXCLUSIVE: Software organisation YellowDog has seen 20% of its 22 Bristol-based employees take-up its employer-paid cycling scheme since it was introduced in December 2017.

The scheme, provided by free2cycle, was implemented in order to help employees have a more environmentally friendly commute, as well as to help attract, engage and retain staff.

Through the scheme, employees are able to select and use an employer-paid bike for both commuting and personal travel. Employees have to commit to cycling a set number of miles a month in order for to avoid contributing towards the cost of the bike, which is paid for by the employer at 20p for every mile cycled per employee, subject to a cap.

Employees are able to track their mileage via an online app.

The scheme was originally communicated to employees using an organisation-wide month-end meeting, as well as through employee emails and internal networking tool Slack. The information was also placed on the staff intranet and circulated by word-of-mouth.

YellowDog also offers its employees an additional holiday day for their birthday, fruit in the office, beers on a Friday, training workshops and facilities, a workplace pension and access to a university-backed training incubator.

Gareth Williams (pictured), founder and chief executive officer at YellowDog, said: “It’s a great benefit to our team which gets them out and about more, benefiting them physically and mentally. We’re expecting it to provide an excellent return on investment in terms of increased productivity, and we can access it with no up-front fees, which for a growing business like us is perfect as we can’t commit to large down-payments. It’s also super-easy to administer, so I’d definitely recommend it to businesses as the benefits are plain to see.”